Pašvitinys (Pashvitin in Yiddish) lies in northern Lithuania, about 42 km.
northeast of the district administrative center Shavl (Siauliai).

Until 1795 Pashvitin was included in the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom. According
to the third division of Poland in that year by the three superpowers of those
times, Russia, Prussia and Austria, Lithuania was divided between Russia and
Prussia. As was the case with most other towns of Lithuania, Pashvitin became
part of the Russian Empire, first within the province (Gubernia) of Vilna and
from 1843 in the Kovno Gubernia. During this period and also during the period
of Independent Lithuania (1918-1940) Pashvitin was a county administrative
center in the Siauliai district.

Jewish settlement until after World War I

Jews probably first settled in Pashvitin at the end of the eighteenth century.
They made their living in the small trades, peddling and crafts. In nearby
villages Jews dealt in agricultural products. Among the Jewish craftsmen in the
town were six shoemakers, six tailors, a number of glaziers and painters, a
carpenter and a watchmaker. In addition there were carters, two or three
melamdim, a teacher and a paramedic.

The weekly markets and the four fairs each year were important sources of
income. Many of the town's Jews relied heavily on money sent by a former
Pashvitiner from South Africa.

At the beginning of the 1860s a Beth Midrash was built in the town. In 1862
land was purchased for a cemetery, and a bath house was built. Previously the
dead were buried at the Jewish cemetery of Yanishok (Joniskis).

According to the all-Russian census of 1897, there were 763 people in
Pashvitin, 435 of them Jewish (57%).

Twenty-four Pashvitin Jews are named in the list of donors for the victims of
the great famine in Persia in 1871-72.

The rabbis who officiated in Pashvitin included:
Mordehai Hilman (1868-1953), served in Pashvitin from 1841 to 1879, later was
Rabbi in Glasgow and London, in 1934 emigrated to Eretz-Yisrael and became Head
of the Yeshivah Ohel Torah in Jerusalem that had been established by his
son-in-law, the Chief Rabbi of Eretz-Yisrael Yits'hak Halevi Herzog. Hilman
published several books on the Talmud and the Rambam and died in Jerusalem.

Elhanan Cohen (1874-1941), served in Pashvitin 1898-1914, from 1926 was Rabbi
in Dvinsk (Daugavpils), was murdered in Dvinsk in the Holocaust.

Rabbi Mordehai Hilman

In 1896 a Heder Metukan which taught Hebrew and the Bible was established in
the town. This school was attended mainly by children from wealthier families.
In 1899 a Heder HaKolel (Common Heder) in which the children of the affluent
and the poor studied together was established in Pashvitin. This Heder was the
first in its kind and served as an example for many Hadarim that were
established in Zhager, Shavl and in other towns.

In June 1900 a blood libel developed into a pogrom against the Jews in
Pashvitin that spread to neighboring towns. The windows of all the Jewish
houses and the Beth Midrash were smashed and a few Jews were wounded. Until
that time relations between the Jews and their Christian neighbors had
generally been fair.

Pashvitin Jews were sympathetic to the ideals of Hibath Zion. As the first
Zionist Congress approached a Bonei Zion (Builders of Zion) society was
established in the town. Its members participated in all its activities and
fund raising. Names of Pashvitin Jews appear in the list of donors for the
settlement of Eretz-Yisrael from 1898. The fund raiser was Mosheh Plan.

On May 4, 1915, during World War I, the Russian military exiled Pashvitin Jews
into the interior of Russia.

During Independent Lithuania (1918-1940)

After the war and the establishment of the Lithuanian state in 1918, only about
half the exiled Jews of Pashvitin returned home. The returnees rebuilt their
homes and organized the community. Following the Law of Autonomies for
Minorities issued by the new Lithuanian government, the Minister for Jewish
Affairs, Dr. Menachem (Max) Soloveitshik, ordered elections to community
committees (Va'adei Kehilah) to be held in the summer of 1919. In Pashvitin a
Va'ad (community committee) of seven members was elected: three General
Zionists, two from Tseirei Zion and two independents. The committee was active
in all fields of Jewish life from 1921 until the end of 1925.

The first government census of 1923 counted 818 residents in Pashvitin, 274
being Jewish (33%).

During this period Pashvitin Jews made their living mainly in the small trades.
According to the government survey of 1931 all nine shops in the town were
Jewish-owned: one haberdashery, one iron products and tools, one textile, one
butcher shop, one grocery, and three grain businesses and one other.

In 1937 only six Jewish artisans remained in Pashvitin: two tailors, two
butchers, one baker and one blacksmith. The flourmill that for many years was
in Jewish hands passed over to Lithuanians. A number of Pashvitin Jews relied
upon aid from their relatives abroad. In 1925 the town had a Jewish dentist,
Ogenia Rozenberg.

In 1939 two out of fifteen telephone subscribers in the town were Jewish.

Beginning in the mid-1930s, the Jewish community decreased gradually. The
economic crisis in Lithuania and the open propaganda by the Association of the
Lithuanian Merchants Verslas that called for the boycott of Jewish shops,
caused many Jews to look elsewhere for their future. Many emigrated to South
Africa, America and Eretz-Yisrael.

During this period the Jewish children received their elementary education at
the government school in Pashvitin.

The Jewish cemetery in Pashvitin(Courtesy of Naomi Musiker, from the Jewish Board of Deputies archive in
Johannesburg, scanned by Barry Mann and Maurice Skikne)

Many Pashvitin Jews were Zionists and most of the Zionist parties had
supporters in the town. The result of voting in the Zionist Congresses by
Pashvitin Zionists is shown below:

CongressNo.

Year

TotalShkalim

Total Votes

Labor Party

ZS

ZZ

Revisionists

General Zionists

A

B

Grosmanists

Mizrakhi

15

1927

13

12







12







16

1929

25





2



10







17

1931

10

10

1

2

2

5







18

1933



27

9

15

3







19

1935



30

16





13

1



21

1939

24

24

2







N. B. 22



The Zionist youth organization HaShomer HaTsair had a branch in the town.

The Yiddish poet and writer Leizer Leibovitz (1906-1972), whose work was
published in the Jewish press in South Africa and from 1966 in Israel, was born
in Pashvitin.

During World War II

With the annexation of Lithuania to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940,
some Jewish shops were nationalized. The Zionist parties and youth
organizations were disbanded. At this time about twenty Jewish families
remained in the town.

The war between Germany and the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941. A few days
later German soldiers entered Pashvitin. Lithuanian activists took control of
the town and immediately began to mistreat the Jews.

A drunken German officer with two Lithuanians took hold of a Jewish girl. When
her grandfather remonstrated with them he was shot.

The mass grave at the Narishkin Park(Picture taken and supplied courtesy of Elkan Gamzu, July 2005)

A short time later the Jews were ordered to leave their homes. They were
imprisoned in the old barn near the Stone Mill on the road to Zeimelis. From
there they were taken out every day for farm work. One day they were loaded
onto carts and driven to Zhager. It is believed that they were murdered
together with Zhager Jews on the day after Yom Kippur 5702 (October 2, 1941).
The names of the Lithuanian murderers are recorded in the archives of Yad
Vashem in Jerusalem.

The inscription in Lithuanian and Yiddish on the monument:
At this site Hitler's murderers and their local helpers
murdered about 3000 Jewish men, women, children
from Shavl district on the 2nd of October 1941.

The above article is an excerpt from Protecting Our Litvak Heritage by Josef Rosin.
The book contains this article along with many others, plus an extensive description of the Litvak
Jewish community in Lithuania that provides an excellent context to understand the above article.
Click here to see where to obtain the book.

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